Fiber optic transceivers are used in a variety of applications, including storage area networks (SANs), local area networks (LANs), Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, and SONET applications. Fiber optic transceivers can be used as the network interface in mainframe computers, workstations, servers, and storage devices. Fiber optic transceivers can also be used in a broad range of network devices, such as bridges, routers, hubs, and local and wide area switches.
Fiber optic transceivers include a fiber optic receiver and a fiber optic transmitter. The fiber optic receiver converts optical serial data to electrical serial data and the fiber optic transmitter converts electrical serial data to optical serial data. A majority of fiber optic transceivers include power control circuits, diagnostic circuits, and other circuits for enhancing the functionality of the fiber optic transceivers.
Fiber optic transceivers are typically critical components in a network system. If a fiber optic transceiver fails during operation of the network system, the entire network system can fail. Network system failure can result in disruptions of services and lost revenues. Because of the critical nature of fiber optic transceivers, some users of fiber optic transceivers require the manufacturers or suppliers of the fiber optic transceivers to indemnify the user for any losses incurred as a result of a failure of a fiber optic transceiver. In response to this potential liability, manufacturers and suppliers have developed strict quality standards that must be met before their fiber optic transceivers are certified for use in systems.
A typical problem for users, manufacturers, and suppliers of fiber optic transceivers is the gray market. Sometimes cloned fiber optic transceivers are used in place of original certified fiber optic transceivers after the original certified fiber optic transceivers reach their end of life or when additional fiber optic transceivers are being added to expand a system. The use of cloned fiber optic transceivers can negatively affect the user and the manufacturer and supplier of the authentic fiber optic transceivers.
The user is harmed because the cloned fiber optic transceivers are of unknown quality and have not been certified as meeting specified quality standards. When the user installs a cloned fiber optic transceiver in a system, the warranty on the system may be invalidated. The manufacturer and supplier of the authentic fiber optic transceiver may not service or support the cloned fiber optic transceiver. In addition, if the cloned fiber optic transceiver should fail, the manufacturer or supplier of the authentic certified fiber optic transceiver will not assume liability for the failure. The customer would be required to attempt to recover from the manufacturer or supplier of the cloned fiber optic transceiver.
Cloned fiber optic transceivers harm the manufacturers and suppliers of authentic certified fiber optic transceivers due to loss of market share, loss of reputation, and liability issues. The reputation of a manufacturer or supplier for quality can be harmed if users believe a cloned fiber optic transceiver originated with the manufacturer or supplier of authentic certified fiber optic transceivers. Liability, warranty, service, and support issues are likely to arise between the user and the manufacturer or supplier when cloned fiber optic transceivers are used in place of authentic certified fiber optic transceivers.